No regrets after giving up NASCAR - Karthikeyan

Global Motorsport Media

Narain Karthikeyan insists he does not regret gambling his future on an abortive return to Formula One in 2011.

The Indian was settling comfortably in the NASCAR system last year before the opportunity arose to take his sponsors back to Formula One with the struggling HRT team.

Narain Karthikeyan, HRT Formula One Team

Photo by: xpb.cc

But after Valencia in June, the now 34-year-old lost his seat to the Red Bull-backed Daniel Ricciardo, and is only now returning for a one-off drive this weekend in his native India.

Karthikeyan insists it was worth the gamble.

"F1 is the pinnacle of motor sport and it is definitely worth the sacrifices that I've made," he told the Press Trust of India.

"The fact that (the) Indian GP was on the calendar did play a part in my decision to return to F1 despite my comfortable position in NASCAR last year.

"But (I have) no regrets, I didn't want to think 'What if?'," added Karthikeyan, who made his debut with Jordan in 2005 and has also been a Williams test driver.

I have been completely dedicated to F1 this year

Narain Karthikeyan

He reveals that he did not consider returning to NASCAR when he lost his full-time F1 seat in June.

"I have been completely dedicated to F1 this year so I didn't have any thoughts of going back," said Karthikeyan. "The circumstances were difficult but I was assured that I'd be driving the Indian GP which was certainly encouraging.